Matthew 1:18-25
Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly.
But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet:
"Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall name him Emmanuel," which means, "God is with us."
When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife, but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus.
Today is the fourth Sunday of Advent, the last of our four Sundays leading up to Christmas Day. Since we will have no Christmas Day/Eve service this year, this will also be our Christmas message. The theme for today is Love.
Love is what Christmas is all about, so much so that we, as well as the culture around us, often put heavy demands on us to “feel” loving at all times about all things Christmas-y. And yet, as John Pavlovitz has continually reminded us in our meditations this month, many of us have trouble feeling what we think we are supposed to feel. Christmas is coming and it’s beautiful, with happy songs and shiny lights everywhere – and yet, some of us are ill, some of us are grieving, many of us are worried, and a lot of us are just plain exhausted by this time. And that’s because life goes on, Christmas or no.
Today’s reading is a classic example of “life goes on” even when God is in the midst of showing us a miracle.
Joseph and Mary are engaged, but what that means in scripture is very different than what it means for most of us today. “Engaged” today often means “we’re living together” – with marriage as a “maybe sometime in the future, maybe not” sort of thing.
For Mary and Joseph it meant they were living together – that’s the same – sort of -- but that was a legal, contracted position, like marriage. Except they would not have been sleeping together. For observant Jewish people of this time, this is how it was done.
And so it is a major issue when Mary announces she is pregnant. What was glorious news to her, was horrible news to Joseph. What was he left to think but that his supposedly virginal “wife” was pregnant with someone else’s child? What he should have done, according to the tenets of his faith, is divorce her and publicly shame her as an adulterous woman.
But Joseph was also a good man who was undoubtedly hurt by this news – he may have loved Mary – but he still didn’t want to shame her. The miracle we will be celebrating this week had a messy beginning – as real life usually does. This was an occasion that truly required love – especially since it was messy, painful love – but love is here in the midst of the mess.
Do you remember the story of another Joseph – Joseph of the many-colored robe, sold into slavery in Egypt by his jealous brothers? This Joseph escaped his slavery through his ability to read dreams and became a rich, important man by interpreting Pharaoh’s dreams.
Well, the Joseph of our story today could read dreams as well, and when an angel appeared to him in a dream and explained the story of Mary’s pregnancy, he listened and understood and stayed faithfully with Mary and raised her child, Jesus.
This is a story of love and caring that had many messy times along the way and we don’t know what words were spoken but we know that the actions spoke clearly about the love that was always there.
Love is not all sweet words. More often than not, love speaks loudest through a hand held in times of fear or sorrow, or a hug, or a smile, or food given when someone is hungry, even if the giver looks a little grumpy while the offer it. Sometimes love speaks best with just a simple acknowledgment of another’s right to personhood and dignity and their own feelings.
The story of love that begins at Christmas opens with a child almost born in shame and progresses through a cast of extremely ordinary people – some fisherfolk, a despised Samaritan, a Roman soldier, lepers, a schizophrenic, tax collectors – all those generally seen as unclean – undeserving of love.
And yet Jesus loved them. Just as Jesus loves us, even when we are often "unworthy" ourselves. And this is the story of Christmas – that the love of God for God’s people was born incarnate—in human flesh -- and lived with us – not with the wealthy and powerful, but with us – just ordinary people. As one of our daily readings earlier this week reminds us
“Love one another” is what this Christmas child grown to adulthood would tell us all one day. “Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another,” -- no ambiguity, no wiggle room, just “do it.”
In the last few weeks we’ve gone through Hope and Peace and even Joy, but without Love none of these will ever come to the fullness God intends for creation.
Love is what Christmas is all about, so much so that we, as well as the culture around us, often put heavy demands on us to “feel” loving at all times about all things Christmas-y. And yet, as John Pavlovitz has continually reminded us in our meditations this month, many of us have trouble feeling what we think we are supposed to feel. Christmas is coming and it’s beautiful, with happy songs and shiny lights everywhere – and yet, some of us are ill, some of us are grieving, many of us are worried, and a lot of us are just plain exhausted by this time. And that’s because life goes on, Christmas or no.
Today’s reading is a classic example of “life goes on” even when God is in the midst of showing us a miracle.
Joseph and Mary are engaged, but what that means in scripture is very different than what it means for most of us today. “Engaged” today often means “we’re living together” – with marriage as a “maybe sometime in the future, maybe not” sort of thing.
For Mary and Joseph it meant they were living together – that’s the same – sort of -- but that was a legal, contracted position, like marriage. Except they would not have been sleeping together. For observant Jewish people of this time, this is how it was done.
And so it is a major issue when Mary announces she is pregnant. What was glorious news to her, was horrible news to Joseph. What was he left to think but that his supposedly virginal “wife” was pregnant with someone else’s child? What he should have done, according to the tenets of his faith, is divorce her and publicly shame her as an adulterous woman.
But Joseph was also a good man who was undoubtedly hurt by this news – he may have loved Mary – but he still didn’t want to shame her. The miracle we will be celebrating this week had a messy beginning – as real life usually does. This was an occasion that truly required love – especially since it was messy, painful love – but love is here in the midst of the mess.
Do you remember the story of another Joseph – Joseph of the many-colored robe, sold into slavery in Egypt by his jealous brothers? This Joseph escaped his slavery through his ability to read dreams and became a rich, important man by interpreting Pharaoh’s dreams.
Well, the Joseph of our story today could read dreams as well, and when an angel appeared to him in a dream and explained the story of Mary’s pregnancy, he listened and understood and stayed faithfully with Mary and raised her child, Jesus.
This is a story of love and caring that had many messy times along the way and we don’t know what words were spoken but we know that the actions spoke clearly about the love that was always there.
Love is not all sweet words. More often than not, love speaks loudest through a hand held in times of fear or sorrow, or a hug, or a smile, or food given when someone is hungry, even if the giver looks a little grumpy while the offer it. Sometimes love speaks best with just a simple acknowledgment of another’s right to personhood and dignity and their own feelings.
The story of love that begins at Christmas opens with a child almost born in shame and progresses through a cast of extremely ordinary people – some fisherfolk, a despised Samaritan, a Roman soldier, lepers, a schizophrenic, tax collectors – all those generally seen as unclean – undeserving of love.
And yet Jesus loved them. Just as Jesus loves us, even when we are often "unworthy" ourselves. And this is the story of Christmas – that the love of God for God’s people was born incarnate—in human flesh -- and lived with us – not with the wealthy and powerful, but with us – just ordinary people. As one of our daily readings earlier this week reminds us
- God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are... (1 Cor.1:27-29)
“Love one another” is what this Christmas child grown to adulthood would tell us all one day. “Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another,” -- no ambiguity, no wiggle room, just “do it.”
In the last few weeks we’ve gone through Hope and Peace and even Joy, but without Love none of these will ever come to the fullness God intends for creation.
Love came down at Christmas,
Love all lovely, Love Divine,
Love was born at Christmas,
Star and Angels gave the sign.
Worship we the Godhead,
Love Incarnate, Love Divine,
Worship we our Jesus,
But wherewith for sacred sign?
Love shall be our token,
Love be yours and love be mine,
Love to God and all men,
Love for plea and gift and sign.
(Christina Rossetti)
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